Please note that our site uses cookies to provide basic functionality and feedback.
By continuing to use our site you accept this use. More information is provided in our privacy page.
Don't show me this again.

Language is a human universal reflecting our deeply social nature. Among its essential functions, language enables us to quickly and efficiently share information. We tell each other that many things are true—that is, we routinely make assertions. Information shared this way plays a critical role in the decisions and plans we make. In Knowledge and the Norm of Assertion, a distinguished philosopher and cognitive scientist investigates the rules or norms that structure our social practice of assertion. Combining evidence from philosophy, psychology, and biology, John Turri shows that knowledge is the central norm of assertion and explains why knowledge plays this role.

Concise, comprehensive, non-technical, and thoroughly accessible, this volume quickly brings readers to the cutting edge of a major research program at the intersection of philosophy and science. It presupposes no philosophical or scientific training. It will be of interest to philosophers and scientists, is suitable for use in graduate and undergraduate courses, and will appeal to general readers interested in human nature, social cognition, and communication.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada has generously contributed towards the publication of this volume.

John Turriis an Associate Professor of Philosophy and a member of the Cognitive
Science Program at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. He
directs the Philosophical Science Lab, research from which is regularly published in leading philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science journals.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for non-commercial purposes, providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:

John Turri, Knowledge and the Norm of Assertion: An Essay in Philosophical Science. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2016, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0083